Raven Traveling
[Told by John Sky of Those-born-at-Skedans][1]
Over this island[2] salt water extended, they say. Raven flew about. He looked for a place upon which to sit. After a while he flew away to sit upon a flat rock which lay toward the south end of the island. All the supernatural creatures lay on it like Genō′,[3] with their necks laid across one another. The feebler supernatural beings were stretched out from it in this, that, and every direction, asleep. It was light then, and yet dark, they say.
[Told by Job Moody of the Witch People[4]]
The Loon’s place[5] was in the house of Nᴀñkî′lsʟas. One day he went out and called. Then he came running in and sat down in the place he always occupied. And an old man was lying down there, but never looking toward him. By and by he went out a second time, cried, came in, and sat down. He continued to act in this manner.
One day the person whose back was turned to the fire asked: “Why do you call so often?” “Ah, chief, I am not calling on my own account. The supernatural ones tell me that they have no place in which to settle. That is why I am calling.” And he said: “I will attend to it (literally, ‘make’).”
[Continued by John Sky]
After having flown about for a while Raven was attracted by the neighboring clear sky. Then he flew up thither. And running his beak into it from beneath he drew himself up. A five-row town lay there, and in the front row the chief’s daughter had just given birth to a child. In the evening they all slept. He then skinned the child from the foot and entered [the skin]. He lay down in its place.
On the morrow its grandfather asked for it, and it was given to him. He washed it, and he put his feet against the baby’s feet and pulled up. He then put it back. On the next day he did the same thing and handed it back to its mother. He was now hungry. They had not begun to chew up food to put into his mouth.
One evening, after they had all gone to bed and were asleep, Raven raised his head and looked about upon everything inside the house. All slept in the same position. Then by wriggling continually he [[111]]loosened himself from the cradle in which he was fastened and went out. In the corner of the house lived a Half-rock being,[6] who watched him. After she had watched for a while he came in, holding something under his blanket, and, pushing aside the fire which was always kept burning before his mother, he dug a hole in the cleared place and emptied what he held into it. As soon as he had kneaded it with the ashes he ate it. It gave forth a popping sound. He laughed while he ate. She saw all that from the corner.
Again, when it was evening and they were asleep, he went out. After he had been gone for a while he again brought in something under his blanket, put it into the ashes and stirred it up with them. He poked it out and laughed as he ate it. From the corner of the house the Half-rock one looked on. He got through, went back, and lay down in the cradle. On the next morning all the five villages talked about it. He heard them.
The inhabitants of four of the five towns had each lost one eye. Then the old woman reported what she had seen. “Behold what that chief’s daughter’s child does. Watch him. As soon as they sleep he stands up out of himself.” His grandfather then gave him a marten-skin blanket, and they put him into the cradle. At his grandfather’s word some one went out. “Come to sing a song for the chief’s daughter’s baby outsi-i-ide, outsi-i-ide.” As they sang for him one in the line, which extended along the entire village front, held him. By and by he let him fall, and they watched him as he went. Turning around to the right as he went, he struck the water.
And as he drifted about he cried without ceasing. By and by, wearied out with crying, he fell asleep. After he had slept a while something said: “Your mighty grandfather says he wants you to come into his house.” He turned around quickly and looked out from under his blanket, but saw nothing. Again, as he floated about, something repeated the same words. He looked quickly around toward it. He saw nothing. The next time he looked through the eyehole in his marten-skin. A pied-billed grebe came out from under the water, saying “Your mighty grandfather invites you in,” and dived immediately.
He then got up. He was floating against a kelp with two heads. He stepped upon it. Lo! he stepped upon a house pole of rock having two heads. He climbed down it. The sea was just as good as the world above.[7]
He then stood in front of a house. And some one called him in: “Enter, my son. Word has arrived that you come to borrow something from me.” He then went in. An old man, white as a sea gull, sat in the rear part of the house. He sent him for a box that hung in the corner, and, as soon as he had handed it to him, he successively pulled out five boxes. And out of the innermost box he handed him [[112]]two cylindrical objects, one covered with shining spots, the other black, saying “I am you. That [also] is you.” He referred to something blue and slim that was walking around on the screens whose ends point toward each other in the rear of the house. And he said to him: “Lay this round [speckled] thing in the water, and after you have laid this black one in the water, bite off a part of each and spit it upon the rest.”
But when he took them out he placed the black one in the water first and, biting off part of the speckled stone, spit it upon the rest, whereupon it bounded off. Because he did differently from the way he was told it came off. He now went back to the black one, bit a part of it off and spit it upon the rest, where it stuck. Then he bit off a part of the pebble with shiny points and spit it upon the rest. It stuck to it. These were to be trees, they say.[8]
When he put the second one into the water it stretched itself out. And the supernatural beings at once swam over to it from their places on the sea. In the same way Mainland[9] was finished and lay quite round on the water.
He floated first in front of this island (i.e., the Queen Charlotte islands), they say. And he shouted landward: “Gū′sga wag̣elai′dx̣ᴀn hā-ō-ō” (Tsimshian words meaning “Come along quickly”) [but he saw nothing]. Then [he shouted]: “Ha′lᴀ gudᴀñā′ñ łg̣ā′gîñ gwā′-ā-ā” (Haida equivalent of the preceding). Some one came toward the water. Then he went toward Mainland. He called to them to hurry, [saying] “Hurry up in your minds,” but he saw nothing. He spoke in the Tsimshian tongue. Then one with an old-fashioned cape and a paddle over his shoulder came seaward. This is how he started it that the Mainland people would be industrious.
Pushing off again toward this country, he disembarked near the south end of the island. On a ledge a certain person was walking. Toward the woods, too, among fallen trees, walked another. Then he knocked him who was walking along the shore into the water. Yet he floated, face up. When he again knocked him in the same thing was repeated. He was unable to drown him. This was because the Ninstints people were going to practise witchcraft. And he who was walking among the trees had his face cut by the limbs. He did not wipe it. This was Greatest-crazy-one (Qōnā′ñ-sg̣ā′na), they say.
He then turned seaward and started for the Heiltsuk coast (ʟdjîñ).[10] As he walked along he came to a spring salmon that was jumping about and said to it: “Spring-salmon, strike me over the heart.” Then it turned toward him. It struck him. Just as he recovered from his insensibility it went into the sea. Then he built a stone wall close to the sea and behind it made another. When he told it to do the same thing again the spring salmon hit him, and, while he was on the ground, after jumping along for a while, it knocked over the [[113]]nearer wall. But while it was yet moving along inside the farther wall he got up, hit it with a club, killed it, and took it up.[11]
He then called in the crows to help him eat it. They made a fire and roasted it [on hot stones]. He afterward lay down with his back to the fire. He told them to wake him when it was cooked. He then overslept. And they took everything off from the fire and ate. They ate everything. They then poked some of the salmon between his teeth. And he awoke after he had slept a while and told them to take the covering off the roast. And they said to him: “You ate it. After that you went to sleep.” “No, indeed, you have not taken the coverings off yet.” “Well, poke a stick between your teeth.” He then poked a stick between his teeth. He poked out some from his teeth. He thereupon spit into the crows’ faces and said: “Future people shall not see you flying about looking as you do now.” They were white, they say, but since that time they have been black.
And walking away from that place he sat down near the end of a trail. After he had wept there for a while some people with feathers on their heads and gambling-stick bags on their backs came to him and asked him what the matter was. “Oh, my mother and my father are dead. Because they told me I was born [in the same place] as you I wander about seeking you.” They then started home with him. Lo, they came to a house. Then they made him sit down. One of the men went around behind the screens by the wall passage. After staying away for a while [he came in and] his legs were wet. He brought a salmon with its back just broken. They rubbed white stones against each other to make a fire. Near it they cut the salmon open. They put stones into the fire, roasted the salmon, and, when it was cooked, made him sit down in the middle. There they ate it. These were the Beavers, they say. They were going out to gamble, but turned back on account of him.
One of them again went behind the screens. He brought out a dish of cranberries, and that, too, they finished. Again he went in. He brought out the inside parts of a mountain goat, and they divided them into three portions, and made Raven’s portion big. Then they said to him: “You had better not go away. Live with us always.” They then put their gambling-stick bags upon their backs and started off.
When it was near evening they came home. He was sitting in the place [where they had left him]. Again one went in. He again brought out a salmon. They steamed it. And they also brought out cranberries. They also brought out the inside parts of a mountain goat. After they had eaten they went to bed. On the next day, early in the morning, after they had eaten three sorts of food, they put the gambling-stick bags upon their backs and started off again.
He then went behind the screen. Lo, a lake lay there. From it a creek flowed away in which was a fish trap. The fish trap was so [[114]]full that it looked as if some one were shaking it. There were plenty of salmon in it, and in the lake very many small canoes were passing one another. Several points were red with cranberries. Lēn[12] and women’s songs[13] resounded.
Then he pulled out the fish trap, folded it together, and laid it down at the edge of the lake. He rolled it up with the lake and house, put them under his arm, and pulled himself up into a tree that stood close by. They were not heavy for his arm.
He then came down and straightened them out. And he lighted a fire, ran back quickly, brought out a salmon, and cooked it hurriedly. He ate it quickly and put the fire out again. Then, sitting beside it, he cried.
As he sat there, without having wiped away his tears, they came in. “Well, why are you crying?” “I am crying because the fire went out some time ago.” They then talked to each other, and one of them said to him: “That is always the way with it.”
They then lighted the fire. One of them brought out a salmon from behind [the screens] and they cut it across, steamed, and ate it. After they had finished eating cranberries and the inside parts of a mountain goat they went to bed. The next morning, very early, after they had again eaten the three kinds of food, they took their gambling-stick bags upon their backs and went off.
He at once ran inside. He brought out a salmon, cooked it, and ate it with cranberries and the inside parts of a mountain goat. He then went in and pulled up the fish trap. He flattened it together with the house.
After he had laid them down he rolled the lake up with them and put all into his armpit. He pulled himself up into a tree standing beside the lake. Halfway up he sat down.
And after he had sat there for a while some one came. His house and lake were gone from their accustomed place. After he had looked about the place for some time he glanced up. Lo, he (Raven) sat there with their property. Then he went back, and both came toward him. They went quickly to the tree. They began working upon it with their teeth. When it began to fall, he (Raven) went to another one. When that, too, began to fall he sat down with his [burden] on one that stood near it. After he had gone ahead of them upon many trees in the same way they gave it up. They then traveled about for a long time, they say. After having had no place for a long time they found a lake and settled down in it.
Then, after he (Raven) had traveled around inland for a while, he came to a large open place. He unrolled the lake there. There it lay. He did not let the fish trap or the house go. He kept them to teach the Seaward (Mainland) people and the Shoreward (Queen Charlotte islands) people, they say. [[115]]
While he was walking along near the edge of the water [he saw] a part of some creature looking like a woman sticking out of the water at the mouth of Lalgī′mi.[14] He was fascinated by her, made a canoe, and went to her. When he got near she went under the water in front of him. After he had made a canoe of something different he went to her again. When he got near to her she sank into the water. He made one of something still different. Again she sank into the water before him.
Now, after he had searched about for a while, he opened a wild pea (xō′ya ʟū′g̣a, “Raven’s canoe”) with a stick and went out to her in it. When he came near to get her that time she did not go under the water. He came alongside of her and took her in. She wore a dancing skirt and dancing leggings. He then got the canoe ashore, untied her dancing leggings and dancing skirt, and wiped her all over. He ran to the woods, got a tcā′łg̣a,[15] and drew it over her for a blanket.
He then launched the canoe and put her in it, and they started landward.[16] He set her ashore on the west arm of Cumshewa inlet (G̣a′oqons) and also took out the house for her, but kept the fish trap in his armpit. He did so because he was going to teach [some one] about it.
He then went back again. After he had passed along Seaward land (the mainland) in his canoe for some time, behold, a person came along by canoe. The hair on the top of his head was gathered in a pointed tuft. And he (Raven) held his canoe off at arm’s length for a while. The canoe was full of hair seal. Then he questioned him: “Tell me, where did you gather the things you have?” “Why, there are plenty of them” [he replied], and he picked up his hunting spear. After he had looked between the canoes he speared something. He pulled out a hair seal. “Look in” [he said], and he (Raven) looked in. He could see nothing. “I say, I am this way (i.e., have bad eyesight) because a clam spit upon me. Since then I have been unable to see anything.” He then stretched his head over. He stretched it to him. And, having pulled a blood clot out of his eye with his finger nails, he put it back again. He used bad words to him, therefore he did not take it out for good. Now, he (Raven) treated him well. He made many advances to him, but he could not get [what he wanted] and started off.
After he had gone along for some time, lo, Eagle[17] was coming; and he said to him: “Comrade, I have been drinking sea water. You, too, had better drink sea water.” And he drank some in his sight. At once he defecated as he went along. Then Eagle, too, drank some. He also defecated as he went, and he said: “Cousin, come, let us build a fire.” “Wait, I am looking for the place.” Then Eagle pulled a water-tight basket out from under his armpit and drank from [[116]]it. At once what he had drunk spurted from his mouth as he went along. After they had gone along for a while they landed upon certain flat rocks extending into the sea.
Then Raven went up first and lighted a fire. He again watched Eagle as he kept taking out his basket and drinking water. He intended to take it, but he did not have an opportunity. Eagle also let the contents of his stomach run into the ground, and they went out of sight. Then he (Raven) took a walk. “I am going to drink,” he said, and passed into the woods. Having taken roots and put root sap into the hat he wore, he went to him. While coming back he drank of it on the way. And he asked Eagle to taste it. He handed it to him. He looked into it. He sniffed at it. “Tell me, cousin, why does your water smell like pitch?” “Well, cousin, the water hole was in clay.”
He then broke off tips of branches from a hemlock that had clusters of twigs sticking out all round them and gave them to him. “Cousin, put these upon the fire.” And he put them upon the fire. Wā-ā-ā, it burned brightly. And after he had done this a while, lo, Eagle pulled out his basket. As soon as he saw that, he (Raven) ran to the end of a clump of limbs and stepped heavily upon it to break it. “Clump of branches, fall down, fall down” [he said], and it broke and was coming down. Then he said to Eagle, “Hukukukuk.”[18] Eagle ran from his water in terror.
Then Raven put on his feather clothing and flew away with it. Eagle, too, put on his feather clothing and flew after him. He tried to hook his claws into him, and water was jerked out of [the basket]. As this happened the salmon streams were formed. Eagle gave up the pursuit, and he (Raven) continued scattering water out of his mouth. After a while he emptied the last where he had stretched out the first [lake]. He treated this island in the same manner. After that he emptied [the last] at the head of Skeena.[19]
Eagle was also called Lā′g̣ałᴀm.[20]
Raven finished this. He then traveled northward. After he had traveled for a while he came to where a village lay. He then put himself in the form of a conifer needle into a water hole behind the chief’s house and floated about there awaiting the chief’s daughter.
The chief’s child then went thither for water, and he floated in the water that she dipped up. She threw this out and dipped a second time, but he was still there. And when close to her he said: “Drink it.”
Not a long time after that she became pregnant. Then she gave birth [to a child], and its grandfather washed the child all over and put his feet to its feet. It began to creep about. After it had crept about for a while it cried so violently that no one could stop it. “Boo hoo, moon,” it kept saying. After it had tired them out with [[117]]its crying they stopped up the smoke hole, and, having pulled one box out of another four times, they gave it a round thing. There came light throughout the house. After it had played with this for a while it let it go and again started to cry. “Boo hoo, smoke hole,” it cried. They then opened the smoke hole, and it cried again and said: “Boo hoo, more.” And they made the space larger. Then he flew away with it. Marten[21] pursued him below. Tā′ʟᴀtg̣ā′dᴀla,[22] too, chased him above. They gave it up and returned.
He then put the moon into his armpit. And, after he had traveled about for a while, he came to where Sea-gull and Cormorant sat. He made them quarrel with each other. And he said to Cormorant: “People tell me to brace myself on the ground with my tongue this way [when fighting].” He then did it, and [Raven] went quickly to him. He bit off his tongue.
Then he made it into an eulachon. And he put on his cape and rubbed this all over it, and he rubbed it on the inside of the canoe as well. Then he also put rocks in and went in front of Qadadjâ′n.[23] And he entered his house. “Hī, I, too, have become cold.” Qadadjâ′n was lying with his back to the fire and, looking toward him, saw his canoe, covered with slime, lying on the water as if full. He then became angry and pulled the screen down toward the fire. Eulachon immediately poured forth. He then threw the stones out of the canoe and put them into it. When it was full, he went off with them.
After he had distributed the eulachon along the mainland in the places where they now are and had put some in Nass inlet, he left a few in the canoe.
He then placed ten paddles under these, of which the bottom one had a knot hole running through it. And he shouted landward to where a certain person lived. She then brought out a basket[24] on her back, and he said to her: “Help yourself, chieftainess.” After she had put them into [the basket] a while, and her basket was nearly full, he stepped upon a stalk of łqeā′ma[25] which he had provided and said: “Ā-ā-ā, I feel my canoe cracking.” He then pushed it from the land, and when she stretched out her arm for more [eulachon] he pulled out the hairs under her armpit.
Fern-woman (Snᴀndjā′ñ-djat) at once called for her sons. Both her sons knew how to throw objects by means of a stick, they say.[26] He immediately fled. And one of them shot at him and broke his paddle. And after they had broken ten he paddled with the one that had a knot hole. When they shot after him again he said “Through the knot hole,” and through the knot hole went the stone. Thus he was saved. He had dexterously got her armpit hair.
He then left the canoe. He came to a shore opposite some people who were fishing with fish rakes in Nass. And he said: “Hallo, [[118]]throw one over to me. I will give you light.” But they said: “Hᴀ hā′-ā-ā, he who is speaking is the one who is always playing tricks.” He then let a small part shine and put it away again. They forthwith emptied their canoe in front of him several times.
He then called a dog and said to it: “Shall I make (or ordain) four moons?” The dog said that would not do. The dog wanted six. He (Raven) then said to him: “What will you do when it is spring?” “When I am hungry I will move my feet in front of my face.” And he made it as he (the dog) told him to do, they say.
He then bit off a part of the moon. After he had chewed it for a while he threw it up [into the sky]. “Future people are going to see you there in fragments forever.” He then broke the moon into halves by throwing it down hard and threw [half of] it up hard into the air, the sun as well.
Thence he traveled northward. The smoke of House-point was near him. He then pulled off his hair ribbon and threw one end of it over here. He at once ran across on it. And he walked about the town, peering in [through the cracks]. The wife of the town chief of House-point had given birth to a child. And he waited until evening. Then, at the time when they went to bed, he entered [the child’s] skin and himself became newly born.
Every morning they washed him, and his father held him on his knee. After a while his aunt came down to the fire. They handed him to his aunt. After she had held him for a while he pinched her teats. “Ha′oia,” she said. “Why do you say that, ʟ̣a?”[27] “Why, he nearly fell from me.” The town chief was named “Hole-in-his-fin,” and his nephew was named “Fin-turned-back.”
After a while he thought: “I wish the village children would go picnicking.” And on the next day the children of the town went picnicking. They brought along all sorts of good food. And his aunt brought him to the same place. When they had played for a while they went away. After they had all gone his aunt sat there alone. He looked about, entered his own skin quickly, and seized his aunt. And his aunt said: “Do not take hold of me. I am single because your father is going to eat my gifts.”[28]
Then, as soon as she started off, he became a baby again. His aunt was crying and as she went had it on her mind to tell what had happened. He wished his aunt would forget it when she went in. And she went in. After her brother had looked at her a while he asked: “What is the cause of those tear marks?” “Why, I discovered him eating sand. That is why I am crying.”
He then started along by the sea and, having punched holes in the shells brought up by the tide, he made two dancing rattles. And he ran toward the woods. He took grave mats, frayed out the ends, and fastened shells upon these. He made them into a dancing skirt. And [[119]]he said to the ghost: “Are you awake?” It got up for him, and he tied the dancing skirt upon it. He also put the rattle into its hand. And he said to it: “Walk in front of the town. When you reach the middle wave the rattle in front of you toward the houses. A deep sleep will fall then upon them.”
Now it began to dance, they say. When it waved the rattle toward the town, just as he had told it to do, they began to mumble in their sleep. They had nightmares. He then went into the first house and, roughly pulling out a good-looking woman, lay there with her. And he entered the next one. There, too, he lay with somebody. As he went along doing this he entered his father’s house, went to where his aunt slept, and lay with her.
And a certain old woman living in the house corner did not have a nightmare. She had been observing the chief’s son in the cradle come out of himself. Then he went out again. After he had been away for a while he came in and lay down to sleep in the cradle. He made the ghost lie down again.
The town people told one another in whispers that he had lain with his aunt, and his mother, Flood-tide-woman, as well. This went on for a while; then, all at once, there was an outbreak. Then they drove Flood-tide-woman away with abusive language. Her boy, too, they drove off with her with abusive words. She was the sister of Great-breakers,[29] belonging to the Strait people, they say.
And they came along in this direction (i.e., toward Skidegate). After they had come along for a while they found a young sea otter opposite the trail that runs across Rose Spit (G̣o′łgustᴀ). His mother then skinned it and sewed it together. Now she stretched it and, having scraped it, laid it out to dry. When it was dried she made it into a blanket for her son. He was Nᴀñkî′lsʟ̣as-łiña′-i,[30] they say.
And after they had traveled for a while she stood with her child in front of her brother’s house. By and by somebody put his head out. “Ah, Flood-tide-woman stands without.” “N-n-n, she has done as she always does (i.e., been unfaithful to her husband), and for that reason comes back again,” said her brother. And again he spoke: “With her is a boy. Come, come, come, let her in.”
Then she came in with her son. And her brother’s wife gave them something to eat. By and by he asked of her: “Flood-tide-woman, what are you going to name the child?” And she moved her hand over the back of her head. She scratched it [in embarrassment]. “Why, I am going to name your nephew Nᴀñkî′lsʟas-łiña′-i.” As she spoke she held back her words hesitatingly. “I tell you, name him differently, lest the supernatural beings who are afraid to think of him (the bearer of that name) hear that a common child is so called.”
While she was staying with her brother her child walked about. He banged the swinging door roughly. “Flood-tide-woman, stop that [[120]]child from continually opening the door in that way.” “Why, chief, I never can stop him.” “Just hear what she says. What a common child is continually doing the supernatural beings ever fear to do.” On another day, while Great-breakers was lying down, he banged the door again. He said to the mother: “Flood-tide-woman, a common child is doing the same thing again. Try to stop him.” “Why, chief, I can never stop your slave nephew.”
And where he was sitting with his mother by the fire, on the side toward the door, right there he defecated. And his uncle’s wife made a pooping sound at him. “I shall indeed go with that husband’s nephew,” he heard his uncle’s wife say.[31]
On the next day, very, very early in the morning, he started off. After he had gone along for some time he came to some persons who burst into singing sweet songs and danced. They then asked him: “Tell us, what are you doing hereabout?” “I am gathering woman’s medicine.” “Well, what do you call woman’s medicine? Is woman’s medicine each other’s medicine?” “Yes; it is each other’s medicine.” Those women chewed gum as they sang. Then one of these gave him a piece. “This is woman’s medicine.” And one of them gave him directions: “Now, when you enter the house, pass round to the right. Chew the gum as you go in. And when your uncle’s wife asks it of you, by no means give it to her. Ask of her the thing her husband owns. When it is in your hands give the gum to her.” And he went away from the singers. When he entered the gum stuck out red from his mouth. Then his uncle’s wife said to him: “I say, Nᴀñkî′lsʟas-łîña′-i, come, give me the gum.” He paid no attention to her. He then sat down beside his mother, and to his mother he said: “Tell her to give me the thing my uncle owns. I will then give her the gum.” Then his mother went to her. She told it her. And to her she gave something white and round. He then handed her the gum. While his uncle’s wife chewed it and swallowed the juice he saw that her mind was changed.
Some time after that his fathers[32] went by on the sea. And he said to a dog sitting near the door: “Nᴀñki′lsʟas-łîña′-i says he desires the place where his fathers now are to dry up and leave them.” And immediately it went out and said so. The tide left them high and dry, and they were in great numbers. They made a scraping sound in their efforts to move. He then said to his mother: “I say, go and pour water upon my fathers.” She then went down to them, and she did not look upon her husband. She poured it only upon Fin-turned-back. And he went to his mother and told her to pour water upon his father. She acted as if she did not hear his voice. They were going to the supernatural beings of Da′osgên[33] to buy a whale, they say.
Then he came in and said to the dog again: “Go and say, ‘Nᴀñkî′lsʟas-łîña′-i says he desires the tide to come in to his parents.’ ” He then went out quickly and said it. X̣ū-ū-ū-ū-ū (noise of the waves coming in), and they at once were moving along far off on the water. [[121]]
And, after they had been gone a while, they returned to that place. And again he said to the dog: “Go and say, ‘Nᴀñkî′lsʟas-łîña′-i says he wishes his parents to leave something for him.’ ” He then went out quickly and said so. Something black was sent to one end of the town. He went thither. A whale floated there.
After he had made a house of hemlock boughs he shot all kinds of birds there. By and by a bufflehead came and ate of the whale. He then wanted it. And he aimed just above the top of its head. When it flew it struck its head. He then skinned it and entered [the skin]. And he wished for a heavy swell, and it became rough, and he walked toward the water. And when a wave came toward him he quickly dived under it. After he had done the same thing repeatedly he flopped up from the water, took the skin off, and dried it in his branch house. He thus came to own it, they say. He kept it in the fork of a tree.
After he had shot there all kinds of birds something blue and slender came and ate of it. It flew down from above. It ate sitting upon it. He then shot it. He shot [only] through its wings. He (Raven) was sad. And on the next day, early in the morning, he entered his branch house. After he had sat there for a while it again came down from above, making a noise as it came. And after it stood upon it and had begun to eat he shot it. The arrow again passed quickly through its wings. His mind was sad.
And on the next day, very early in the morning, he again went into the branch house. It came by and by and ate. And he now shot over it. As it started to fly it was struck in the head. He then went down to get it. He brought it into the branch house.
When he had skinned it, he entered it. He then flew up. After he had flown for a while he turned quickly and came down. He then ran his beak into a rocky point at the end of the town. At the same time he cried out: “G̣ao” (Raven’s croak). Though the rock was strong, he split it by his voice. After he had dried it in the branch house he put it where he kept the bufflehead.
He then started off, they say. He went in and sat down by the side of his mother. By and by his aunt said to her husband: “Why do you remain seated so long? Go and hunt,” she said to him. And they brought out a war spear and a box of arrows, and they put pitch on [the cord wound round the arrow point] for him. And at midnight he went off in a canoe, and his place was vacant in the morning.
He (Raven) then went out and stood up out of himself (i.e., changed himself). He put on two sky blankets and painted his face. And, as soon as he entered, his uncle’s wife turned her head. He went around behind the screens. And, after some time had passed, it thundered on the underground side of the island.
And her husband came back and asked his wife: “My child’s mother, what noise was that, sounding like the one that is heard when I go to [[122]]bed with you?” And she laughed and said: “Why, I guess I am the same with Nᴀñkî′lsʟas-łîña′-i, your nephew.”
On the next day, early in the morning, Great-breakers sat in the place where the fire was. On the top of the chief’s hat (dadjî′ñ skîl) that he wore a round fleck of foam swirled rapidly. Nᴀñkî′lsʟas-łîña′-i began to look around. And he went out, got his two skins, put on his two sky blankets, and came in. His uncle had his hair tied in two braids. Something on his head began turning around very rapidly.
Then a strong current of sea water poured from the corner of the house. And he put his mother in his armpit, quickly entered his bufflehead skin, and swam about in the current. He dived many times and again swam about. And when the sea water came up to the roof of the house he floated out with it through the smoke hole.
He then quickly entered the raven’s skin. He at once flew up. He then ran his beak into the sky. And his tail was afloat on the water. Then he kicked against the water. “Enough. You, too, belong to me.” There it stopped (lit., “came to a point”). It began to melt downward.
And he looked down. The smoke of his uncle’s house looked pleasing. He then became angry with him, at the sight, and started to fly down. After he had flown for a while he ran his beak into it from above, crying as he did so, “G̣ao.” “Oh, you shall own the title of Chief-of-chiefs (Kî′lsʟekun)” [said his uncle].
He then became what he had been before. He entered with his mother. From that time he often set out to hunt birds. When he came in one day he said to his mother: “Mother, Qî′ñgi[34] says he is coming to adopt me.” And his uncle said to her: “Qꜝā′la īdjā′xᴀn,[35] Flood-tide-woman, stop that child from talking. We are, indeed, fit to be adopted.”
After this had happened many times they saw something wonderful, they say. People came dancing on ten canoes. He then went out, put on two sky blankets, and walked around on the retaining planks. Said his uncle: “What he brought on by his talking has happened. I wonder how we are going to supply people and food.”
And, after he had walked about for a while, he kicked upon the ground in the front part of the house on the right side. There the ground cracked open. Out of it one threw up a drum from his shoulder. They came pouring out. He went to the other side as well. There he also kicked. “Earth, even, become people” [he said]. Thence, too, one threw up a drum from his shoulder. And he did the same thing to the ground in one of the rear corners. Out of that, too, some one threw up a drum from his shoulder. He did as before on the other side. And they danced in four lines toward the beach. Out of his uncle’s house Tsimshian, Haida, Kwakiutl, Tlingit [came] [[123]]singing different songs.[36] Yet his uncle said [sarcastically]: “We shall indeed have lots to eat.” They sat down in lines, and around the door was a crowd to serve the food.
Then Nᴀñkî′lsʟas-łîña′-i said: “Now go to my sister Sî′ndjugwañ to get food for me.”[37] And a crowd of young men went to get it. They came back with silver salmon and cranberries. And [he said]: “Go to Yał-kīñā′ñg̣o,[38] too, to beg some for me.” Her house was also full of silver salmon, cranberries, and sockeye salmon. They also brought some from the woman at the head of Skidegate creek,[39] and they brought some from the woman at the head of Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o creek. It mounted up level with the roof. The distribution of food was still going on when daylight came. On the next day, too, and on the next day [it went on]. At the end of ten days they went off in a crowd. These [days] were ten winters, they say.
And he went off with his father Qî′ñgi. Soon after they arrived at his village he invited the people to come. He called them for a feast. He (Nᴀñkî′lsʟas) did not eat the smallest bit. And on the next day he called them in to a feast for his son. Again he did not eat. Two big-bellied fellows had come in. People took up cranberries by the box, and when one of these opened his mouth they emptied a boxful into it. They also emptied boxes into the mouth of the other.
On the next day his father invited them again, and they (the big-bellies) came in and stood there. And again cranberries were emptied into their mouths. Then Nᴀñkî′lsʟas went quickly toward the end of the town. As he was going along he came to open ground where cranberries were being blown out. He stopped up this hole with moss, and he did the same to another. After he had entered he questioned the big-bellied ones, who stood near the door: “I say, tell me the reason why you eat [so much].” “Don’t ask it, chief. We are always afflicted in this way.” “Yes; tell me. When my father calls in the people, and you are going to eat, if you do not tell me I will make you always full.” “Well, chief, sit close to me while I tell you. Early in the morning take a bath, and when you lie down [after it] scratch yourself over your heart, and when scabs have formed on the next day swallow them.”
He did at once as he was told. After he had sat still for a while [he said]: “Father, I have become hungry.” Upon this his father sent to call the people. [The big-bellied persons] again came in and stood there. Again was [food] emptied into their mouths. It did them no good. And he again became hungry. He again called them in. Day after day, for many days, he called them in. One day he went out [to defecate]. They saw him eating the cranberries that had floated ashore upon the beach [from peoples’ dung]. Thereupon they shut the door upon him. [[124]]
He now started off. By and by he came [back] and sat behind his father’s house. “Father, please let me in.” They did not want him. “Father, please let me in. I will put grizzly bears upon you. I will put mountain goats upon you.”[40] He offered him all the mainland animals. “No, chief, my son, they might wake me up by walking over me.”
He then began to sing a certain song. He beat time by striking his head against the house. The house began to fall over. And at that time he nearly let him in, they say. And when he went away they snatched off from him the black bear and marten [skins] he wore.
That time he went away for a long period. By and by they saw him floating on the sea in front of the town in a hair-seal canoe.[41] He wore his uncle’s hat. On top of it the foam was swirling around as he floated. As soon as they saw he had become changed in some unknown manner the town people all entered Qîñgi’s house. And after they had talked over what they should do for a while he dressed himself up. The town people put themselves between the joints of his tall hat. After Nᴀñkî′lsʟas had remained there a while the sea water continued to increase. And Qîñgi, too, grew up. Then he became angry and broke the hat by pulling it downward. Half the people of his town were lost.
After he had been gone for a while he came and stopped in front of the town. “Nᴀñkî′lsʟas is in front on a canoe.” And his father said: “Go and get him that I may see his face.” They then spread out mats, and his comrades came in and sat there. His father continually gave him food. His father was glad to see him.
After food had been given out for a long time and evening was come, his father sat down near the door. By and by he said: “My son, chief’s child, let one of your companions tell me a story.” He then asked the one who sat next to him: “Don’t you know a story?”[42] “No,” they all said, and he turned in the other direction also. “Don’t you know one story?” “No; we do not.” He then said to his father: “They do not know any stories.” And his father, Qîñgi, said, “Ītꜝē′i, let one of your companions relate to me ‘Raven traveling,’ ” by which he made Nᴀñkî′lsʟas so ashamed that he hung his head.
By and by, lo, a small, dark person, who sat on the right side, threw himself backward where he sat. “Ya-yā′-ō-ō-ō-ō-ō, the village of the master of stories, Qîñgi.” When he said this the people in the house were [startled], as if something were thrown down violently. “Ya-yā′-ō-ō-ō-ō-ō, the supernatural beings came to look at a ten-jointed łqeā′ma[43] growing in front of the village of the master of stories, Qîñgi. There they were destroyed.” “Ya-yā′-ō-ō-ō-ō-ō, the supernatural beings came and looked at a rainbow[44] (a story name) moving up and down in front of the village of the master of stories, Qîñgi. There they were destroyed [said the next].” “Ya-yā′-ō-ō-ō-ō-ō, the supernatural [[125]]beings once came to look at Greatest-sea-gull and Greatest-white-crested-cormorant throw a whale’s tail back and forth on a reef that first came up in front of Qîñgi’s town. There they were destroyed.” “Ya-yā′-ō-ō-ō-ō-ō, the supernatural beings came to see Harlequin-duck and Blue-jay run a race with each other on the property of the master of stories, Qîñgi. There they were destroyed.” “Ya-yā′-ō-ō-ō-ō-ō, the supernatural beings once came to look at the lower section of a wooden rattle lying around which used to sing of itself.[45] There they were lost.” “Ya-yā′-ō-ō-ō-ō-ō, the supernatural beings once came to look at an inlet, which broke suddenly through white rocks at the end of Qîñgi’s town, out of which Djila′qons came knitting. There they were destroyed.” “Ya-yā′-ō-ō-ō-ō-ō, the supernatural beings once came to see Tā′dᴀlᴀt-g̣ā′dᴀla and Marten run a race with each other in front of the village of the master of stories, Qîñgi. There they were destroyed.” [What the other three said has been forgotten.[46]]
Then Nᴀñkî′lsʟas started off afoot. After he had traveled for a while he came to the town of Ku′ndji. In front of it many canoes floated. They were fishing for flounders.[47] They used for bait salmon roe that had been put up in boxes. He then desired some, and changed himself into a flounder. And he went out. After he had been stealing the salmon roe for a while they pulled out his beak.
Those people, who then sat gambling in rows in the town, looked at the beak one after another. They handed it back and forth for the purpose. Nᴀñkî′lsʟas looked at it, and said: “It is made of salmon roe.” He then went toward the woods and called Screech-owl. And he pulled its beak out, put it upon himself, and put some common thing into [the owl] in its stead.
By and by they went out again to fish and again he went out. And after he had jerked off many pieces of salmon roe a hook entered one of his lips. They then pulled him to the surface and came ashore, and [the owner] gave it to his child, and they ran a stick through it [to put it over the fire]. And when his back became too warm he thought: “I wish something would make them run over toward the end of the town.” After some time had passed the whole town (i.e., the people of the town) suddenly moved. And right before the child, who sat alone near by, he put on his feather clothing and flew out through the smoke hole. The child then called to its mother: “My food flew away, mother.”
He did not go away from the town, they say. On another day they prepared some food in the morning. Crow invited the people to a feast of cakes made of the inner bark of the hemlock and cranberries mixed together. Among them they called him (Raven). And he refused. “No; you only call each other for mussels.” Afterward he sent Eagle out to see what they did call each other for. And after [[126]]he had gone thither he said to him: “They call each other for cakes of hemlock bark and cranberries.” “Now, cousin, be my messenger.” Eagle then said: “The chief is coming.” “No; we call each other for mussels.”
Before they had begun eating he ran into the woods. After he had made rotten trees into ten canoes he put in spruce cones, standing them up along the middle. Grass tops he put into their hands for spears. They then came around the point, and he walked near them with his blanket wrapped tightly around him. Terrible to behold, they came around the point, men standing in lines along the middle of the canoes. Leaving their food, the people fled at once. He then went into the house and ate the cakes. He ate. He ate. Where the canoes landed they were washed about by the waves.
He then started off. He traveled about. On the way he got his sister neatly, they say. He then left his sister with his wife. And he started off by canoe. He begged Snowbird[48] to go along with him, and took him for company. He also took along a spear. And short objects[49] lay one upon another on a certain reef. Then, when they came near to it, the bird became different.[50] He took him back. And he begged Blue-jay also to go, and he started with him. But when they got near he, too, flapped his wings helplessly in the canoe. And, after he had tried all creatures in vain, he made a drawing on a toadstool with a stick, placed it in the stern, and said to it: “Bestir yourself and reverse the stroke” [to stop the canoe]. He then started off with him. But when he got near it shook its head [so strong was the influence].
He then speared a big one and a small one and took them back. And when he came home he called his wife and placed the thing he had gone for upon her. And he put one upon his sister as well. Then Sīwa′s (his sister) cried, and he said to her: “But yours will be safe.”[51]
After he left that place he married Cloud-woman. And, as Cloud-woman had predicted, a multitude of salmon came up for him. But, when they were on the point of moving and he went through the middle passage of the smokehouse, salmon bones stuck in his hair, and he used bad language that made his wife angry.[52] She then said to the dog salmon: “Swim away.” From all the places where they lay they began to swim off. And a box of salmon roe on which his sister sat was the only food left in the house.
They then moved the camp empty-handed. And he made himself sick. He went along in the bow beside the salmon roe. After he had gone along for a while his sister smelt something, and he said it was a scab he had pulled off with his finger nails. After she had spoken about it many times as they went along he threw Sīwa′s’s box empty ashore. [[127]]
And after they had gone along for a while they built a camp fire. He then put yellow cedar upon the fire. After it had given forth sparks for a while one flew between Sīwa′s’s legs. He then told her a remedy: “Now, go around in the woods exclaiming, ‘I call for medicine.’ When something says ‘Yes,’ go over to it and sit down where a short red thing sticks up.” And after he had spoken to her, and she had called about for a while, something said “Yes.” And after she had looked for it [she saw] something red sticking up. Then she sat down there. Lo, she discovered her brother lying on the ground under her.
He then became ashamed, and drew something with the tip of his finger. Right there a child cried. And he took it out [of the ground]. And he put boards round it as people were going to do in the future. Then the child became old enough to play. And he went around after [the child]. One time when it went out to play it vanished forever.
Then he started to search for it. He put on his feather clothing and flew over the whole of this country. He did the same upon Mainland. When he could by no means find it, he heard that the supernatural beings had taken it because he (Raven) used to fool them. He then stopped searching. When the boy stood up, lightning used to flash around his knee-joints. He was named Sᴀqaiyū′ł.
One day some one with disheveled hair came in. “Father, I come in to you.” Then he (Raven) spat upon his face. “Sᴀqaiyū′ł was not like that.” And when he went out, lightning played around his knee-joints. He vanished at once. Then he cried; he cried.
Then he put his sister into his armpit and started off with her. And after Siwa′s had finished her planting at Ramsey island he came, stood on the inner side of Ramsey island, and begged all kinds of birds to accompany him. They went after cedar-bark roofing in preparation for a potlatch. They soon got this out upon the open ground. He then caused the cedar bark to be left there.[53]
And, when they became hungry, he called all kinds of animals. And, after they came floating in front of him on their canoes, he came out wearing black, shabby clothing. He then spoke. They did not understand. And they sent for Porpoise-woman. And when she came he (Raven) said: “I am the sides and I am the ends, between which I qᴀlaastī′s.”[54] Then she said: “How would they get along if I were absent? He wants them to fight him with abalones and sea eggs.” They then threw these at him. And he ate. And, since the house was too small, he started to potlatch outside. All the supernatural beings whom he had invited came by canoe.
Then he made holes in the beaks of all kinds of birds. And Eagle, too, asked to have his pierced. He became wearied by his importunities and made them anyhow. That is why his nasal openings now run upward. [[128]]
[Told by Abraham of the Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o qē′g̣awa-i]
When he first started he decked out the birds. They were made of different varieties, as they now appear to us, in one house. Then, as soon as he had dressed up the birds, they went out together. At that time he refused to adorn two of them. When the house was too full they said to those who sat next to the walls: “Let your heads be as thin as the place where you sit.” Those have thin heads.
The two he had refused to adorn went crying to the [various] supernatural beings and came to Rose Spit, where they heard a drum sound toward the woods. They went thither. When they came and stood before Master Carpenter[55] with tear marks on their faces, he asked: “What causes your tear marks?” They then answered: “Raven[56] decked out the other birds. He said we were not worth adorning.” “And yet you are going to be handsomer than all others” [he said], and, having let them in, he painted them up. He put designs on their skins (feathers). Those were the Qꜝē′da-kꜝō′xawa.[57]
[Continued by John Sky]
He went thence by canoe, and came to where herring had been spawning. He then filled the canoe with herring, dipped them out of the place where the bilge water settles and threw them toward the shore. “Future people will not see the place where you are.”[58]
[Continued by the chief of Kloo of Those-born-at-Skedans]
And when he went away he came to where a spider crab sat. And he said to it: “Comrade, do you sit here? Don’t you know that we used to play together as children?” He then put his wings into its mouth and took them out again. “A little farther off, spider crab,” he said to it, and it closed its jaws together. It began at once to move seaward. And he (Raven) said to it: “Comrade, let me go. When about to let me go you used to look at me with eyes partly closed [as you are doing] now. Let me go. It will be better for us to play with each other differently. Let me go.” By and by the sea water flowed over him. Then it let him go.
And after he had traveled for a while he pulled off leaves from the salal-berry bushes, stuck spruce needles into them, and came to where an old man lay with his back to the fire. And he entered and sat down on the side opposite him. “Hē,” he said, as if he, too, were cold from going after something. Then the old man looked over to him and said: “Have I stretched out my legs, that one keeps saying he is getting cold?” He then stretched out his legs, and it became low tide. And, with Eagle, he brought up sea eggs to the woods. [Raven also brought up a red cod, but Eagle brought up a black cod.]
They then made a camp fire. And Eagle roasted his.[59] It began to drop fat into the fire. Then Raven roasted his, but it became dry. [[129]]And he asked to taste of Eagle’s. “Cousin, why does yours taste like cedar? Cousin, I will bring you a small bundle of bark from the woods. When a stump comes to you, rub this [black cod] upon its face.” As soon as he went off Eagle put some stones into the fire. When they became red-hot, the stump came toward him. He then picked up a stone with the tongs and rubbed it upon the stump, and the stump went back into the woods out of sight. By and by, lo, he came to him with bark on his shoulder. His face was blackened all over. “Why, cousin, what has happened to your face?” “Well, cousin, I pulled some bark down upon my face.” “Why, cousin, it is as if something had burned it.” “No, indeed, cousin, bark dropped upon me.”
[Continued by John Sky]
On the way from this place he begged for canoe companions.[60] He begged all kinds of birds to come. Then Blue-jay offered himself to him, and he said: “No: you are too old to come.” But he insisted. He then seized him by the top of his head and pulled him into the canoe. For that reason the top of his head is flattish. And he completed his begging for comrades.
They all got then into the canoe. And it set off. It went. It went. It went. It went. They stopped in front of the Halibut people. Hu-hu-hu-hu-hu,[61] they came down to the beach in crowds. “Raven is going to war,” they said one to another as they came down to meet him. And he asked them to go, too, as companions, and they went. They fixed themselves along the bottom of the canoe like skids[62] and started. They went. They went. And before daylight they landed at the end of his (the enemy’s) town. Then his Halibut people lay [in two rows], with their heads outward, along the path which extended down from the house. Outside of them the birds also stood in lines. They hid themselves behind the halibut. After they had been there a while he came out wearing his dancing hat. When he came out one of the halibut flopped his tail at him. He fell down. The next one, too, wriggled his tail. So they continued to do until they brought him in.[63] Then he asked them why they did this to him. And they said they did it because he blew too long. They then let him go. And they started back. This was Southeast-wind, they say. After they had gone along for a while they set down the halibut at their homes, and the birds also went away.
And after he had traveled about for a while he came to some children playing and offered to join them. “I say-y-y, playing children, let me play with you-ou-ou.” “No-o-o; you would eat all of our hair se-e-e-al.” And he said: “My grandfather has gone after some for me. My father has gone after some for me.” They then let him play with them. Then he devoured all of the children’s hair seals, and they were all crying for them. [[130]]
He also started away from that place. After he had gone along for a while he found a flicker’s feather floating near the shore and said to it: “Become a flicker.” It at once flapped its wings.
And after he had traveled thence for a while he came to the place where Master Fisherman[64] and his wife lived. He wanted Raven’s flicker; so he gave it to him. “Things like this are found on an island that I own.” And he said he would show it to him. And after he said he would show it to him Master Fisherman baited a halibut hook taken from among those hanging in bunches on the wall. When he had let it down into the hole into which they used to vomit sea water he pulled out a halibut, and his wife split it open and steamed it. When it was cooked the three ate it.
They went to bed, and next day he took him (Master Fisherman) to see the flicker island. Then he arrived there and said to Master Fisherman: “Do not get off.” Then he (Raven) landed. He broke off the ends of cedar limbs. And he wounded his nose. As he went along he let the blood run down into his hands. And he threw around the cedar twigs with blood upon them. “Change to flickers,” he repeated. Then they flew in a flock. And he brought some in. “Now, get off. There are plenty of them,” he said to him. Then he landed.
[Continued by the Chief of Kloo.]
And he (Raven) lay down in the canoe and began to drift away with the wind, and he (Master Fisherman) shouted to him: “Say, you are drifting away. You are drifting away.” He paid no attention to him.[65] He got far off. Then he started away [by paddling]. Then he made himself appear like Master Fisherman, and landed in front of his wife’s [house]. And he said: “Behold, it was the one always doing such things. There is not a sign of the things he went to show me.” And after he had had her as his wife a while he said: “My child’s mother, differently from my former state, I am hungry.” Then she steamed a fat halibut for him, and he ate it. After he had remained sitting for a while, he said: “My child’s mother, differently from my former state, I would like it.”[66] Then he again drank salt water. And after he had drunk salt water he baited the halibut hook and let it down into the hole where sea water was vomited out. The same thing as before happened. He pulled a halibut out.
And when his wife went after some water, lo, her husband sat near the creek and said to her: “That was the same one who is always doing such things. Stop all the holes in the house. As soon as he drifted away from it (the island) I wished my hair-seal club would swim over to me.” And to him it swam out. Then it brought him to the land, they say.
Then he ran in with the hair-seal club. And he (Raven) ran squawking about the house. By and by he knocked him down with [[131]]his club. Then he threw him down into the latrine. And after he had lain there a while he spoke up out of it.[67] Then he took him out and pounded him up again. He even pounded up his bones. And he went down to the beach at low tide and rolled a big rock over upon him.
[End of so-called “old man’s story” and beginning of “young man’s” part[68]]
Then he was nearly covered by the tide. And he changed himself in different ways. By and by, when only his beak showed above water, his ten supernatural helpers came to him. Then they rolled the rock off from him, and he drifted away. The first to smell him among his supernatural helpers was a Tlingit, who wore a bone in his nose [like the shamans.]
After he had drifted away for a while, some people came along in a canoe. “Why does the chief float about upon the water?” And when they got within a short distance he said: “He has a hard time for going after a woman.”
And after he had drifted about a while longer, a black whale came along blowing. And he thought, “I wish it would swallow me.” And, as he wished, it swallowed him. Then he ate up its insides. After he had eaten all he thought: “I wish it would drift ashore with me in front of a town.” And in front of a town it drifted ashore with him.
After they had spent some time in cutting it up, they cut a hole through right where he was, and he flew out. Then he flew straight up. And he turned down at the end of the town, pulled off the skin of an old man living there, threw away his bones, went into his skin, and lived in his place instead of him. By and by they asked him about the something that came out of the whale’s belly. Then he said: “When something similar happened a long time ago they fled from each other in fear.” At once they fled from each other in fear. And afterward he ate the whale they were bringing up. This was why he had changed himself.
[Told by Tom Stevens, chief of Those-born-at-House-Point.]
And one time he had Hair-seal as his wife. Then they had a child. And one day he went after firewood with him. His son was fat, and, pleased at the sight of him, he wanted to eat him. Then he said to him: “I am within a little of eating you.” And after they had come home, and had got through eating, he said to his mother: “Ha ha⁺, mama, my father said to me: ‘I am within a little of eating you.’ ” And Raven said: “Stop the child.” He made him ashamed. After that he devoured him.[69]
[Continued by the Chief of Kloo.]
And after he had traveled about a while from that place he came to another town. And he was eating the leavings cut off of the salmon they brought in. By and by some of the milt[70] hung out of his [[132]]nose. Then he said to his cousin [Eagle]: “When I pass in front of the town, cousin, say: ‘Wā-ā-ā[71], one goes along in front of the town with a weasel hanging from his nose.’ ” And when he passed in front of the village [he said], “Wā-ā-ā, one passes in front of the town with the milt of a salmon hanging from his nose.” Then he went back to him and said: “Cousin, say, ‘Weasel, weasel.’ ” But when he went again he said the same thing. Then he made him ashamed, and he went right along [without stopping].
And after he had gone along for a while he met some people coming back from the hunt with many hair seals. Then he changed himself into a woman. And he found a long, slender rock and said to it: “Change into a child,” and it became a human being. “Say, you who are coming, come and marry me.” Then the canoe was pointed toward her. And she picked up stones, too, they say. After they had gone along for a while she said: “The child wants hair seal. He is crying for it.” Then one cut off a piece for it. Then she wished a mist to fall, and it happened. Then they put mats over her, under which she ate it. And she put grease on the stones and threw them overboard. And she kept saying that it was the hair seal. Then they gave some to her again.
Then they gave her as wife to one of them. Some time after he had married her they gave her salmon roe to eat. And she saw where they kept it. Then she went to the place at night. And she ate in it. But when she lay down afterward she found that her labret was lost. And when they went [to the box] to get some again in the morning they found her labret in it. Upon this she touched it quickly with her lips and said: “Lg̣ᴀ′nsal stā′-is[72] was flapping her wings all night in my lip as she always does when she wants something that smells bad.” Then they handed it to her, and she put it back into her lip.
And one day, when she went out with others to defecate, and stood up, the tail coming from her buttocks was visible a moment. “Ai-ī, what is that sticking from my son’s wife’s buttocks?” “Why, this is not the first time a Tlingit woman’s tail stuck out from her buttocks.”
By and by she told her husband they were about to come after her, and she made them bring together firewood in preparation for it. Then she changed excrement into people and made them come by canoe. Then they landed; but when they came in and sat down they began to perspire. Right there they were melted. And she became ashamed. Then they were completely melted. And she flew away.
And after he (Raven) had traveled on from that place he came to where Water-ousel[73] lived. And he (the bird) gave him food. By and by he drove a stick into his leg, out of which salmon roe [such as has lain some days after hatching] ran in a stream. He gave it to him to eat. Then he started from that place. After he had traveled [[133]]for a while he came to where Sea-lion lived. And after he had given him some food he roasted his hand, out of which grease dropped. That he gave him to eat. He started off, and when he had traveled a while came to where Hair-seal lived. Then he, too, roasted his hand in the fire, and grease came out. He gave it to him to eat.
Then he went away and lived in one place for a while. After he had lived there for a time Water-ousel came in to him. Then he drove something into his leg, but only made himself faint away. And he (the bird) was ashamed. While he was in the faint he went off. Then he came to himself. And after he had continued living there for a while Sea-lion and Hair-seal came in.[74] Then he roasted his hand, but it was burned. And they left him. Afterward he came to life again.
[Parts of the young man’s story told by Walter McGregor of the Qā′-i-ał-lā′nas]
He began to offer his sister in marriage, and when any creature came in to him he looked at its buttocks. When they were lean he refused it. After he had done [lit., said] this for a while Sea-lion wanted to many his sister. Then he looked at his buttocks. They were fat, and he let him marry his sister. They had two children. G̣ē′noa[75] was the elder. Iwā′ldjida was the younger. Once Raven went out fishing with his brother-in-law and thought: “I wish halibut would come to me only.” Then he only caught halibut. And his brother-in-law, Sea-lion, asked him: “Say, why do they come to you?” “That is something people are not brave enough to ask for.” Then he again asked him, and he said to him: “Well, they like me, because I use a piece of skin cut from my testes for bait.” And he told him to do the same to his. When he just touched them with a knife, “Wā-wa-wa-wā′, it hurts,” he said to him. “Don’t you see you are not brave enough for it?” Then he told him to do as before. Then he cut off the whole of his testes and ate the fat part of his brother-in-law. After he had consumed it he put stones in him in its place, and came to his sister singing a crying song: “Siwa′s’s husband, my sister’s husband. Siwa′s’s husband, my sister’s husband.” Then his sister asked him: “What has happened, brother?” He paid no attention to her. He sang the crying song. “What is it?” she kept saying. By and by she asked her brother: “What has happened, my brother Raven?” And he said to her: “Where they always do so, [the enemy] stood at House-point. With my great brother-in-law I met them. My great brother-in-law fell without speaking a word. I, however, went around and around them calling.” Then his sister, too, sang a crying song. She had G̣ē′noa on her back and held Iwā′ldjida in her hands. Then she sang the crying song: “G̣ē′noa’s father, Iwā′ldjida’s father. G̣ē′noa’s father, Iwā′ldjida’s father.” At once they carried him up in a mat. And Siwa′s said: “Say, chief, [[134]]why is your brother-in-law so heavy?” Then Raven said: “You always talk nonsense. This is not the first time a chief who has been killed is heavy.” The rocks put into him made him heavy.
After they got him into the house they had Mallard-duck[76] doctor him, and when he came in, and had gone around the fire for a while, he said: “Hăn hăn hăn hăn (quacking of duck), his brother-in-law, his brother-in-law.” And Raven said: “[Speak] differently, great doctor. [Speak] differently.” Then again he said, “Hăn hăn hăn hăn, his brother-in-law took out his insides.” Then he kicked him into the fire. And just before he flew out he said the same thing. So they came to know that he had killed his brother-in-law.
One time he let Cormorant marry Siwa′s, because he was the best fisherman. And he went out fishing with him, and Cormorant alone caught halibut. He (Raven) caught only a small one. Then he went toward the bow to Cormorant and said to him: “Let me see what is upon your tongue.” And when he ran his tongue out he pulled it out, and his voice was gone. That is why the cormorant has no voice.
Then he pulled the halibut round toward himself [so that their heads lay in his direction] and turned the small one toward him (Cormorant).[77] Then they went home, and he pulled off the halibut. Cormorant motioned his wife to the halibut, and his sister asked: “Say, chief, why does he motion me to the halibut?” Then Raven said: “He is trying to say he wants the head of a big one.” And she asked her brother again: “Say, chief, what has happened to your brother-in-law?” “Why, while I was fishing with him his voice left him.” He wanted to eat all the halibut. That is why he took it out.
After he had gone on for some distance a sea anemone (?) looked out from under a rock. He became fascinated at the sight of the corners of its eyes, which were bluish, and said to it: “Say, cousin, come and let me kiss you.” And the sea anemone said: “I know your words, Raven,” and made him angry. Then he threw aside the stones from it and steamed it [in the ground]. When it was cooked he ate it while it was still hot. Then his heart was burst with the burning. That is why ravens do not eat sea anemones.
After he had gone along from there for a while he came to a town. Having looked into the house [he saw] no people there. Then he entered. Halibut and slices of smoked hair seal lay on the drying frame. Only old wedges lay near the fire. But when he started to carry off the halibut and slices of seal a wedge threw itself at his ankle bone; on the other side the same thing happened, and he fainted with the pain. Then he threw them from his shoulders and went out. And he looked into a house near by. And he entered that, too. There were plenty of hair seals and halibut there. On the wall was some design drawn with finger nails. Then he started to carry some out. When he came to the door something pulled his hair. He saw [[135]]nothing. After they had pulled his hair until they made him weak, he went out. These were the Shadow people, they say.
After he had traveled thence for a while he came to a house in which the Herring people were dancing. The air (weather or sky)[78] even shook above them. And when he looked in the Herring people spawned upon his mustache. Then he ate the fish eggs. They tasted bad, and he threw away his mustache.[79] Then, having pushed in a young hemlock he had broken off, he drew it out. The fish eggs were thick upon it, and he ate them. They tasted good. He started the use [of these limbs].
After he had gone on for a while he came to one who had a fire in his house. And he did not know how to get his live coals. And [the man] had bought a deerskin. “Say, cousin, I want to borrow your skin a while.” And he lent it to him. It had a long tail, they say, and he tied a bundle of pitch wood to the end of the tail. Then he came in and danced before him. As he danced his face was turned toward the fire only. After he had danced for a time he struck his tail into the fire and the pitch wood burned. Then his tail was burned off. That is why the deer’s tail is short. Then he went into his own skin and flew away with the live coals. His beak, too, was burned off. And they pursued him. They could not catch him and came back. He got the coals neatly.
On traveling thence he found a devilfish’s nose (i.e., mouth) drifted ashore. And he took it and came to Screech-owl. And he said to him: “Say, cousin, let me borrow your beak a while,” and he lent it to him. Then he stuck the devilfish nose he had found in its place and said to him: “Say, cousin, yours looks nice. You are fit to travel about with the supernatural beings.”
After he had traveled on for a while his cousin (Eagle) came to him. And, after they had traveled together for a while they came to an abundance of berries, which Eagle consumed before he got there. On that account he was angry with him. And he went quickly to the beach, found a sharp fish bone, and stuck it into the moss ahead of him (Eagle). “Run into Eagle’s foot,” he said to the bone. And he said to Eagle: “Now, cousin, go right on here before me.” And as he went along there the bone stuck into his foot. “Cousin, let me see it,” and he pretended to take it out with his teeth, but instead commenced to push it in farther. “Wā-wā-wā, cousin, you are pushing it in.” “No, cousin, it is because I am trying to pull it out with my teeth.” By and by he pulled it out and said to him: “Cousin, wait right here.” Then he examined the ground before him [to select an easy path]. And he ordered a chasm to form. It did so. And, breaking off a stalk of łqeā′ma,[80] he laid it across the gulf and put moss upon it. He made it like a dead, fallen tree. Then he went back toward Eagle, carried him on his back, and started over with [[136]]him upon the dead tree. When he got halfway over he let him go. “Yauwaiyā′, what I carry on my back is heavy.” He burst open below. Then he went down to him and ate his berries. He ate all and started off.
After he had traveled for a while he came to a woman with a good-sized labret weaving a water-tight basket, and he asked her: “Say, skᴀñ,[81] have you seen my cousin?” She paid no attention to him, and he again said to her: “Say, skᴀñ, have you seen my cousin?” Again she paid no attention to him. “Skᴀñ, I can knock out your labret.” “Don’t. Over yonder is a qꜝa′ła[82] point, beyond which is a spruce point, beyond which is a hemlock point, beyond which is an alder point. At that point in front of the shell of a sqā′djix̣ū[83] on which he is drawing is your cousin.” Then he started over, and it was as she said. “Say, cousin, is that you?” [he said], and he pulled him up straight, and they started off together.
After they had gone on they came to a town. They (the people) were glad to see them. Then they began giving them food. When they gave them berries to eat they asked Eagle: “Does the chief eat these?” And Raven said: “Say that I like them very much.” But Eagle said: “The chief says he never eats them.” And they only gave them to him (Eagle). And again they gave him good berries to eat, and he said: “Those, too, the chief does not like.”[83]
When he was going on from there he came to a town in which the chief’s son, who was the strongest man, had had his arm pulled out. A shaman came to try to cure him. The chief’s son was the strongest man. In trying strength with people of all ages by locking hands with them he could beat them. By and by, through the smoke hole came a small pale hand, and [they heard its owner] say: “Gū′sg̣a gᴀ′msiwa” (Tsimshian words meaning “Let us have a try”). And he put his fingers to it. It pulled off his arm. They did not know what it was. And he (Raven) alone knew that one of Gū′g̣ał’s[84] sons had pulled his arm off. Then he flew to Gū′g̣ał’s town, went to an old man who lived at the end of the town and asked him: “Say, old man, do you ever gamble?” And he said he did. “They say they pulled off the arm of a chief’s son. I wonder where the person who did it belongs.” And he said: “Why, don’t you know? It was done by the one of Gū′g̣ał’s sons who is always doing those things. The chief’s son’s arm is in a box behind the screen in his father’s house.” And he (Raven) said: “Well, although everybody knows those things, I was asking this.” Then he pulled off his (the old man’s) skin and entered it. And next day he took a gambling-stick bag and walked with a cane to the middle of the town. When he sat down he heard Gū′g̣ał’s sons say: “You are always on hand, old man; we will gamble with you.” The eldest wagered him his hair ribbon, and they gambled with him. They lost the ribbon to him. Then it was too late to go home, and he [[137]]said: “I will stay right in your house.” And they said to him: “All right, old man, sleep in our house so that we may gamble with each other in the morning.” Then he entered, and they seated him near two good-looking women. They gave him something to eat. “Old man, you are always ready,” they said to him, and they went to bed. Then he broke wind. The women laughed at him every time as they whispered together. By and by, when they were asleep,[85] he flew lightly toward the screen and felt of the chief’s son’s arm which was in a box. Then he waited for daylight and flew over it. As he did so the ends of his claws touched the top of the screen. It sounded like a drum. Then he lay down quickly. “Alas! it is the one who is always doing such things. Does the old man lie there as before?” And the women said: “Yes; he lies here. He has been breaking wind all the time. Now, he is snoring.” And he asked again: “Is the chief’s son’s arm in the box?” And the women said: “Yes; it is here.” Then when they were asleep again and day had begun to break he flew up easily behind the screen and seized the chief’s son’s arm in his mouth. And when he flew away with it the ends of his claws touched the top of the screen. When it gave forth a drumming sound all looked up. He flew through the smoke hole. The chief said: “Alas! it is he who is always doing such things.” Then he came flying to the chief’s son’s father’s town and began to act as shaman around the chief’s son. He washed the arm, which had begun to smell badly [from decomposition]. Then they handed him a new mat [and he laid] the chief’s son’s arm in place under it. At once his arm was restored. They gave many things to him and much food as well.
He started from that place also. After he had gone along for a while he came to a town. The town people were glad to see him, and he went into a house. A good looking woman lived in the house. Then they went to bed, and he went over to the woman. When he came to her she asked him, “Who are you?” “I am one who came to this place for you.” But the woman absolutely repulsed him. Then he went away from her. And when the woman slept he went to her again and put dung inside of her blanket. Then he cried: “I went to the chief’s daughter, but, finding something terrible there, changed my mind.” And the woman awoke and said: “A′-a-a a-a′, don’t tell anybody about it. I will give you a substance that my father owns but always keeps secret.” And he said: “[Give me] some.” Then she gave all to him. And the woman said to him: “Don’t lose it. With that you will have good luck. And when you see anyone, you can adorn him with it,” she said to him. This is what causes people to be good-looking.
After that his sister Siwa′s planted Indian tobacco in front of White inlet. And, while it was yet in the garden, he calcined shells. But before he pulled the tobacco out he became angry with the calcined [[138]]shells and threw them away. Where the calcined shells were the surface of the rocks is white.
There he went out fishing for his sister. He threw the halibut ashore. There is high, level land there called “Halibut’s place.” He named places, too, as he went along. “Your name will be like this; you will be called so-and-so,” he said as he went. Then he passed over one place, and it called after him: “What shall my name be?” Then he said to it in the Ninstints dialect: “Your name will be ‘Salt Stone,’ you common object.”
Then he set out to spear Bad Weather (Tcꜝī′g̣a). He made a spear with a detachable point. He used strong gut for cord. And he saw its head pass. Then he speared it. And it tugged him about in a sitting posture. He kept hold of the cord and was pulled out to a reef lying in front. After he had been pulled about there a while the spear point broke. [The string] struck on the face of a declivity. There the rocks show a white streak.
When he went away he stuck an eagle’s tail feather [into a certain place]. That is called “Eagle’s-tail-feather-stuck-in.”
After that he was love-sick for his uncle’s wife. Then he sat there singing a song, at the same time striking his head upon the rocks for a drum. There he made a hole. That place is called “Moving-the-back-part-of-the-head-about-while-singing.”
[Told by Abraham of Those-born-at-Qꜝā′dᴀsg̣o]
One time, when he was going along with his cousin, he came to an island of ʟꜝkꜝia′o.[86] At once he went out and ate them. After he got through eating, he went back toward shore with his cousin. And when they became thirsty he said to his cousin: “Take one stroke in the water, cousin.” As soon as he did so they came to Standing-water creek, which was very far away. Where he drank there, there is a water hole of the shape of his bill.
This is why, when people travel by canoe on the west coast, the country is easy for them (i.e., they travel about easily). The place where he and his cousin ate ʟꜝkꜝia′o is called “Pulled-off-with-the-teeth.”[87]
[Told by Tom Stevens, chief of Those-born-at-House-point]
When he (Raven) first started traveling about, numbers of persons lay along the ground, acting as if ashamed. Then he pulled them upright as he ran along. These were the mountains.
Another version
[Told to Prof. Franz Boas by Charlie Edenshaw, chief of the Stᴀ′stas]
Nenk·îlsʟasʟiñgai’s[88] mother was Gēʟîk·ᴇdzā′t (“Flood-tide-woman”). His father was ʟg̣ang̣ag·îñ (“Dorsal-fin”),[89] whose sister’s son was called ʟg̣anxē′la (“Hole-in-dorsal fin”). He was born in [[139]]Naēku′n. Now, Nenk·îlsʟasʟiñgai was crying all the time. The people tried to quiet him, and they gave him various things to play with, but he was not satisfied. There was a young girl, Qalgaitsadas (“Ice-woman”).[90] She also tried to quiet him. She took him in her arms, and he at once ceased crying. He touched her breasts and was quiet. After a little while she returned him to his mother. At once he began to cry again, but when she took him again he quieted down when he touched her breast.
The boy was growing up very rapidly. Now he was able to walk. ʟg̣anxē′la was his mother’s lover. When his father, ʟg̣ang̣ag·îñ, found this out he became jealous, and he sent his wife back to her uncle, Nenk·îlsʟas. Then she took her boy on her back and went to her uncle’s house. About noon she felt hungry. She was going to start a fire, but she did not succeed. She turned the fire drill until her hands were sore, but she did not succeed in making a fire. Then Nenk·îlsʟasʟiñgai went into the woods, where he took two large sticks. He struck the ends together, and at once there was a great fire. His mother was surprised to see it, but she did not make any remark.
In the evening they lay down and slept. Early the next morning they proceeded on their journey. In the evening the mother tried again to start a fire, but she did not succeed. Then the boy went to the woods and started the fire in the same manner as on the preceding day.
Finally they reached the house of Nenk·îlsʟas, which was located in ʟg̣aē′xa.[91] A large pole was standing in front of his house. Nenk·îlsʟas’s slaves were outside the house when Gēʟîk·ᴇdzā′t was approaching, carrying her child. They entered the house and told Nenk·îlsʟas that she was approaching. He remarked: “She is always acting foolishly, therefore she has been sent back.” He told his slaves to call her into the house. She entered and remained sitting near the doorway. She did not go to the rear of the house. Her uncle gave her food. The boy was defecating in the house all the time. His excrements were very thin and spread over the floor, so that the house smelled very badly.
The boy was staying with his mother. In the night, when everybody was asleep, he arose from the side of his mother, left the house, taking bow and arrows, and shot woodpeckers (sʟō′ts’ada). He gave them to his mother and asked her to make a blanket of their skins. His mother dried these skins and sewed them up. Then he began to shoot whales, which he took to a little river near ʟgaē′xa, named Xagusiua′s.[92] Then Raven came right down from the sky, intending to eat the whales. The boy tried to shoot it, but he was unable to kill it. Raven flew away, but soon returned. Again the boy tried to shoot it, but did not hit it. Finally, however, he succeeded in killing Raven. He hid its skin between the branches of a large tree.
One day the boy said to his uncle: “My fathers are going to come [[140]]from Naēku′n to look for my mother.” Then his uncle remarked: “I am afraid that boy is going to cause us trouble. Stop your talking.” But Nenk·îlsʟasʟiñgai repeated his former statement. The following day he said again: “My fathers are going to come from Naēku′n to see me.” Again his uncle begged him to be silent, but he did not obey.
After a few days the people from Naēku′n arrived. The beach was covered with canoes. Then his uncle felt greatly troubled. He had many slaves. The boy said to one of the slaves: “Go out and tell them to come ashore.” His fathers were the Killer-whales. Then they came ashore and fell down. His father and his cousin ʟganxē′la were among those whales. Then his mother took a bailer and sprinkled some water over ʟganxē′la, while she left her husband to perish. After some time the boy said to a slave: “Go out and call the water to cover my fathers.” Then the tide returned, and the whales returned to Naēku′n. The boy continued to shoot birds.
His uncle’s wife was making mats all the time. The boy was very beautiful, but he continued to defecate in the house. His uncle’s wife was sitting in the rear of the house. The boy had collected much red gum, which he was chewing. One day he returned home just at the time when his uncle had finished his dinner and was washing his face. Then his uncle’s wife asked him for some gum which was hanging out of the boy’s mouth. The boy fell in love with his uncle’s wife, who was sitting on the highest platform of the house. The boy crept silently up to the woman and encircled her, placing his head under her left arm, his body over her back, and his feet under her right arm. When the woman looked down she saw that he was very pretty. His uncle did not notice it. He (the uncle) was a great hunter, and he always brought back a great quantity of food. Every evening, when his uncle had gone out hunting, he visited the woman. [The boy was staying in the house all the time; his soul went out hunting birds and visiting the woman.] As soon as he reached the woman it thundered, and he was much frightened. He defecated, and the house was so full of excrements that the slaves had to carry them out in buckets. When his uncle Nenk·îlsʟasʟiñgai came home he was about to give the game to his wife. He asked her why it had thundered that day. “It is a sign that my nephew cohabits with you [he said].”
In the village T’ano[93] there was a chief whose name was Qîng·. The boy said: “I want Qîng· to come here to be my father.” His uncle, who was sitting in the rear of the house, heard what he was saying. He asked his sister to command the boy to be silent, but he continued to say it. One day many canoes arrived on the beach. Then the boy said to his uncle: “The chiefs are coming. What are you going to do?” His uncle did not reply because he was afraid. When they approached the house the boy threw off his skin, and he was beautiful. [[141]]
The chief who arrived here was called Qoēqqu′ns.[94] He lived in the middle of the ocean. He was his mother’s father. The boy had visited him and had borrowed his people, whom he took to his uncle’s house. He had put on his woodpecker blanket, and he flew to his grandfather’s house. He painted his face with a design of Ts’agul[95] and made himself very beautiful. When he returned he walked about inside the house scolding his uncle: “Why is there nobody staying with you? Now, all the chiefs are coming, and there is nobody to receive them.” Then Nenk·îlsʟasʟiñgai stamped his feet, and immediately the house was full of people. He had transformed the dirt on the floor of the house into people by stamping once. In one corner of his house were Qoēqqu′ns’s people, who spoke the Tsimshian language. When he stamped with his foot in another corner of the house people appeared who spoke Heiltsuk (or Wakashan). In the next corner, when he stamped the ground, the Haida arose, and in the last corner he also created Haida.
After a while Qîng· arrived. They performed a dance, and Nenk·îlsʟasʟiñgai gave them to eat. Then Qîng· returned to his own country. The boy accompanied him. When he made the Tsimshian he wore a flicker[96] (Sqaldzit) blanket. Then he changed and wore a woodpecker (sʟodz’adang) blanket. Afterward he used a Sixasʟdᴀlgang[97] blanket. This is a large bird with yellow head, which flies very rapidly. Finally he used a T’in[98] blanket. This is a bird that is eaten in Victoria. When they arrived in Qîng·’s house Nenk·îlsʟasʟiñgai sat between Qîng· and his wife. The chief asked him: “Are you hungry?” But he did not want to eat. He was chewing gum all the time. In the house there were many people. Two youths were standing on one side of the door when the chief was eating. The chief sent some food to them. Their skin was quite black. Their name was Squl (“Porpoise”). They were eating ravenously. The boy asked: “How is it that you can eat so much?” They replied: “Don’t ask us. We are very poor because we are hungry all the time.” But he insisted. He said: “I can not eat, and I must learn how to eat. You must assist me to learn.” They refused, but Nenk·îlsʟasʟiñgai insisted. They said: “We are afraid of your father. If we tell you, you will have bad luck.” But the boy would not accept their statements. Then they became angry and said: “Go and bathe, and when you do so scratch your skin and eat what you scratch off. Do so twice.” The youth did so, and then he became very hungry. He told his father: “I am a little hungry.” Then the old man was very glad. He called all the people to see how his child was eating. The people came, and when they had seen it they returned. After a very short time the youth was hungry again. His father invited the people, and after they had eaten they went away. [[142]]It was not long before the boy was hungry again. He could not get enough to eat. He ate all the provisions that were stored in the house. Then Qîng· turned the boy out of his house and he was very poor. He asked to be admitted again, but Qîng· did not allow him to enter. Then he took his raven skin and put it on. He knocked the walls of the house with his beak, asking admission, but he was refused.
He promised to give them fox, mountain goat, and other kinds of animals. Then he went down to the beach, where he ate some excrements. After a while he returned to the house and asked again for admission. Then the boy grew angry, and wished the waters to rise. The waters began to rise, and rose up to Qîng·’s throat. Then Qîng·’s sister and her ten children began to climb up his hat, which was transformed into a mountain, which may still be seen near the village. There is another mountain near by which is called Qîñg·i xa′ñginᴇñ gutas’wa′s.
Then the boy returned to his uncle, and the people returned to their villages. The boy was in love with his uncle’s wife, and his uncle was jealous. Then he called upon the waters to rise, intending to kill his nephew. The waters were coming out of Nenk·îlsʟas’s hat. Then the boy took the skin of a waterfowl (Q’ē′sq’ut),[99] which he put on. The house began to fill with water. Then he swam about on the water. He was carrying the raven skin under his arm. When the water rose still higher, he flew up through the smoke hole and reached the sky. He shot an arrow up to the sky, which stuck in it. Then he continued to shoot, hitting the nock of the first arrow; and thus he proceeded, making a chain which reached almost down into the waters. Finally he fastened his bow to the lowest arrow and climbed upward. When he reached the sky, he broke it, went through, and saw five countries above. First he came to an open place in which many berries were growing. There were salmon in the rivers, and the people were singing. He was chewing gum. He tried to find the singers, but he could not discover them. He passed the place whence the noise proceeded, and turned back again. Finally, after a long time, he found them. He saw a number of women who were singing. He asked them, “Where did you obtain this song? I like it very much.” Then they laughed at him, and said, “Did you never hear that there are five countries up here, and that the inhabitants use this song? They are singing about Nenk·îlsʟasʟîñgai′, who is in love with his uncle’s wife.” At that time he received the name Nenk·îlsʟasʟîñgai′. He wandered about in heaven for many years, singing all the time.
He came to a large river, where he heard the people singing. He came to a town near which he saw a pond. The chief’s daughter went out to fetch water. Then Nenk·îlsʟasʟîñgai′ transformed himself into the leaf of a hemlock, and dropped into the bucket of water which [[143]]the chief’s daughter dipped from the pond. When she attempted to drink, the hemlock leaf was in her way, and she tried to blow it away, but did not succeed. Finally she grew impatient and swallowed it with the water. After two months she had a child, and her father was very glad. The child slept at his mother’s side, but at midnight, when all were asleep, he traveled all over the country and came to a town. The people were all asleep, and during the night he ate their eyes. When the people awoke in the morning, they found that they were blind. They asked one another, “Did not you hear a story about such a thing happening?” But the old people said they never had heard of such a thing. The next night he proceeded to another town, where he also ate the eyes of all the people. Then he did the same in a third town. The people did not know how they lost their eyesight. Finally he went to a fourth town and ate the eyes of the people.
There was an old man in the corner of the chief’s house. He did not sleep because he wished to discover how the people in the various towns were blinded. One night he saw the boy arise from the side of his mother and return early in the morning. He returned with his skin blanket filled with something. The old man saw him sitting down near his mother’s fire and taking out something round from his blanket. While doing so he was laughing. Then the old man knew that he had taken the eyes of the people.
When, the next morning, the people heard that the inhabitants of another town had lost their eyes the old man said that he had seen how the young man ate the eyes while his mother was asleep, that he had carried them back to the house in his blanket, and that he had eaten them sitting near the fire.
The floor of the house was made of stone. The chief then broke it, took the boy, and threw him down to our earth. At that time the water was still high, and only the top of his totem pole was seen above the surface of the water. The boy dropped upon the top of the totem pole, crying “Qa!” and assumed the shape of a raven. The pole split in two when he dropped down upon it. Then the waters began to subside, and he began his migrations.
He went to a rock from which the wind was blowing all the time. He intended to kill the [s. e.] wind, Xēiō′. He tried to make canoes from various kinds of wood, but they did not satisfy him. Then he asked the birds to carry him there, but they could not do it. Finally he took the maple tree, and he succeeded in making a good canoe. He vanquished the wind and made him his slave.
Xāusgana[100] was fishing for halibut. The Raven went to visit him. He was kindly received, because Xāusgana did not know that he was trying to steal food wherever he went. One morning when he went out fishing Raven said: “On my travels I saw a large island on [[144]]which there are a great many woodpeckers.” Xāusgana believed him. He said: “Let us go and see it.” One day, when the water was calm, they started, accompanied by Xāusgana’s wife. They paddled toward the island, and Raven said: “Stay here in the canoe while I go ashore to hunt woodpeckers in the woods.” There were many sʟāskʼᴇma (a plant bearing something resembling berries) in the woods. Raven took one of these and struck his nose until it bled. Then he transformed the blood into woodpeckers. Then he went back to the canoe and said: “Did you see the woodpeckers coming out of the woods?” By this time many woodpeckers had come out from under the trees, and Xāusgana became eager to hunt them. Fishermen are in the habit of tying the red feathers of the woodpeckers to their hooks in order to secure good luck.[101]
As soon as Xāusgana had gone a hunting Raven went back to the canoe. He lay down in it and thought: “I wish that a wind would start from the island and that the canoe would drift away!” He pulled his blanket over his head and pretended to sleep. Now a wind arose, and the canoe drifted away. When Xāusgana saw this he shouted: “Wake up! You are drifting out to sea!” but Raven did not stir. Then Xāusgana was greatly troubled because he had lost his canoe. As soon as Raven was out of sight he assumed the shape of Xāusgana and turned the canoe toward his house. He went up to the house and said to Xāusgana’s wife:[102] “That man who came visiting us is Raven. He is a liar.” Then the woman gave him to eat, and after he had finished the food he asked for more. The woman remarked: “How does it happen that you are so hungry now? Formerly you never ate as much as you do to-day.” She was unable to satisfy his hunger. At night he lay down with her. He lived in the house, and people believed that he was Xāusgana.
The latter was staying on the island, unable to leave it. After a while he thought: “I wish my rattle would come here!” The rattle obeyed his summons. Then he wished his bow to come. Then he walked home over the surface of the water as though it were firm land. He reached his village. After a while he saw his wife coming out of the house. He called her and told her: “The Raven has cheated you. Let us take revenge. Close all the chinks of our house and lock the door. When everything is done shut the smoke hole; then I will appear and take revenge.” The woman reentered the house and acted as though nothing had happened. She prepared food for him, and he ate. While he was eating he said all the time: “It is strange how much I have changed. Formerly I was never as hungry as I am now.”
Meanwhile the woman closed all the chinks of the house. Then Xāusgana entered. Raven put on his skin and tried to escape, but Xāusgana caught him and killed him. He broke his bones to pieces [[145]]and threw him into the latrine. On the following day when his wife went to defecate Raven spit upward at her genitalia. He took the body and struck it again, and he took a large stone and pounded it to jelly. Then he threw it into the sea. It drifted about on the water. One day many people went out in their canoe. When they saw the body they remarked: “Why is that chief drifting about on the water?” And the body replied, “A woman is the cause of this.”
After a while he thought, “I wish that a whale would come and swallow me!” Then the whale came and swallowed him.
Here follows the story of the Raven in the Whale.
The whale stranded and was discovered by the people. They came and cut it. Then Raven thought: “I wish that the chief’s son would open the whale’s stomach, that I may get out again!” At once the chief’s son cut open the whale’s stomach. Then Raven flew out right against the young man’s chest. The youth fell down dead. Then the people were afraid, and ran away.
Raven flew into the woods, and assumed the shape of an old man. He came back, leaning on a staff, and asked the people: “Why are you running away?” They told him what had happened. Then he said, “I heard that the same events happened long ago. At that time the people left the town, leaving all their property behind. I think it would be best for you to do the same.” Then the people, who were much afraid, left the village at once. Raven stayed behind, and ate all their provisions.
Beaver[103] was a chief who had his room in the rear of a very beautiful house. Behind the house there was a large lake, where Beaver went to play. Then he returned to his house. In the lake there were many salmon, and on the shores were growing all kinds of berries. When he returned home he carried a fish, which he boiled.
One day Raven, who desired to rob Beaver of his treasures, disguised himself as a poor, ugly person. In this shape he went to Beaver’s house. In the evening Beaver came home, bringing a fish and berries, which he intended to boil. Raven arranged it so that he should meet him. Then Beaver asked: “What are you doing here?” Raven replied: “My father has just died. He said that you are my brother. We have the same ancestors. He told me to go to visit you and to ask you for food.” Then Beaver invited him to his house. He boiled his fish, and when it was cooked he let Raven partake of the meal. He believed him and pitied him.
Next day Beaver went to the lake. He told Raven to stay at home. Toward noon he returned, carrying a salmon, and he spoke kindly to Raven, promising to feed him all the time. He told him that there were always fish in the lake and ripe berries on its shores. [[146]]
On the following day Raven went out to the lake. He rolled up the water like a blanket, took a number of fish out, boiled them, and ate them. When Beaver came home he found Raven crying and pretending to be hungry. On the following day Raven went out again. He rolled up the water, took it in his beak, and flew away. He alighted on the top of a large cedar tree.
When Beaver went out in order to fish in his lake he found that it was gone, and he saw Raven sitting on a tree, holding the water. Then Beaver called the monster Tā′ʟat’adᴇga,[104] which has a long body, a long tail, and many legs; and he called all the beavers and the bears and asked them to throw the tree down. The wolves dug up its roots, the beavers gnawed the trunk of the tree, and all the animals tried to do what was in their power. Finally the tree fell. Then Raven flew off to another tree. They tried to throw this tree down. All the animals of the forest helped Beaver. After they had thrown down four trees they asked a favor of Raven: “Please give us our chief’s water. Don’t make us unhappy!” But he did not comply with their request. He flew away, and spit some of the water on the ground as he flew along. Thus originated all the rivers on Queen Charlotte islands. He also made the Skeena and Stikine rivers.
There was a man named K·ʼî′lkun, who lived at Skidegate. He asked Raven to give him some water. Raven complied with his request, but gave him very little only. This annoyed him so much that he fell down dead. He forms the long point of land near Skidegate.[105] The same thing happened at Naēku′n.[106] For this reason there is a long point of land at that place.
This is the best known, as it is the longest, of all stories told on the upper northwest coast, and many writers have given fragments of it. Although often spoken of as the creation legend, it would be more correct to say that it explains how things were altered from one state or condition into that in which we now find them. Thus topographic features, natural phenomena, the tastes, passions, habits, and customs of animals and human beings are mainly explained by referring to something that Raven did in ancient times. He was not the only originator of all these things, but he was the principal, and for that reason he was known as Nᴀñkî′lsʟas (“He-whose-voice-is-obeyed”). Until Qî′ñgî adopted him he was called Nᴀñkî′lsʟas-łîña′-i (“The-potential-Nᴀñkî′lsʟas”). Some even said that Nᴀñkî′lsʟas was a great chief who put on the skin of a raven only when he wanted to act like a buffoon. Among the three peoples who have developed this story most—Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian—the Raven clan is also of very great importance, and it is evident to me that there is a causal relation between the two facts. I have, however, discussed the singular prominence of the Raven clan among the people in this region in volume V, part 1, of the Memoirs of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, page 104.
Aware of the important position held by this myth, I made a special endeavor to secure as much of it as possible and consulted several different story-tellers. The main portion of the story was given me by John Sky, a Kloo man, who also related the five next and that on page 86. A long section was added by Walter McGregor, who belonged to the people of the west-coast town of Kaisun, and fragments were contributed by Abraham, an old man of Kloo, by Tom Stevens, chief of Those-born-at-House-point, the ancient people of Rose spit, and by Job Moody, a man of the [[147]]Witch people of Cumshewa and father of my interpreter. A second version is appended. This was obtained in English by Prof. Franz Boas from Charlie Edenshaw, chief of the great Masset family Stᴀ′stas. He spent his earlier years at Skidegate, so I am not certain whether it is more like the story as told at Skidegate or as told at Masset. I am inclined to think, however, that it approaches the form in which it was told by the people of Rose spit. While at Masset I secured several additional texts bearing on events in the life of Raven, some of them differing considerably from the above. An abstract of these texts will be found on pages 207–211 of volume V, part 1, of the Memoirs of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. On pages 233–238 of the same memoir will be found two sections of the story obtained from two old Kaigani. They probably contain much of the Tlingit Raven story. Finally, it must be stated that Raven is brought forward to explain so many local phenomena that an absolutely complete Raven story is neither practicable nor necessary. [[151]]
[1] The first six of these stories belong to one series and are said to have been formerly recounted at Skedans in the same order. [↑]
[2] That is, the Queen Charlotte group. [↑]
[3] Probably belonging to the Actinozoa. [↑]
[4] The principal family of Cumshewa. [↑]
[5] The proper habitat or dwelling of a human or supernatural being is described in Haida by this word tcīa. [↑]
[6] Rock from her hips down. [↑]
[7] That is, he could get along just as well under water as in the air. [↑]
[8] The black pebble was to be placed in the water first, then the speckled one. A piece of each was to be bitten off and spit upon the remainder. [↑]
[9] Literally, “One-lying-seaward,” or “Seaward-land.” [↑]
[10] By ʟdjîñ the Haida understand the coast of British Columbia from the borders of the Tsimshian southward indefinitely. The people living along it, be they Kwakiutl, Nootka, or Salish, are all called ʟdjîñ xa′-idᴀga-i (ʟdjîñ-people). Djîñ = “far.” [↑]
[11] A version of this episode obtained by Professor Boas runs as follows: “On his travels Nᴀñkî′lsʟas saw a large salmon (tā′un). He said to him, ‘Come nearer. Jump against my chest.’ He did so, and Nᴀñkî′lsʟas almost fainted. Then he made a hole in the rock. He called the salmon a second time, asking him to jump against his chest. The salmon did so and finally fell into the hole.” [↑]
[12] Lēn are joyful songs, usually containing Tsimshian, but more often sung in the houses than out of doors. [↑]
[13] Djiā′djat qagᴀ′n, lit. “Women’s songs,” were employed particularly when totem poles and house timbers were towed in during a potlatch. [↑]
[14] According to the best informed this was Bentinck arm, perhaps South Bentinck arm, in the Bella Coola country, and this would agree with Dawson’s statement that the Bella Coola are called Ilghī′mī by the Tsimshian. [↑]
[15] Probably the same as tco′lgî, a mainland animal like a mink, if not that animal itself. [↑]
[16] That is, toward the Queen Charlotte islands. [↑]
[17] The word used for “Eagle” here is sʟg̣ᴀ′m, a story name. It is evidently identical with sʟqᴀ′m, the Masset word for “butterfly.” Among the Masset Haida, Butterfly takes the place of Eagle as Raven’s traveling companion. [↑]
[18] An exclamation of warning. [↑]
[19] Here there is repetition. The great lake formed by the last fresh water poured out was at the head of Skeena river. [↑]
[20] The derivation of this word is uncertain. [↑]
[21] The story name of the marten, Kꜝux̣ugîna′gîts, is here used. The common name is kꜝu′x̣u. [↑]
[22] This was a small bird which I have not identified. The word is said to mean “Swift-rainbow-trout,” and it was thought to be the fastest of birds, just as the marten was supposed to be the fastest animal. [↑]
[23] Qadadjâ′n, the owner of the eulachon, is a mountain on the south side of Nass inlet at its mouth. [↑]
[24] A basket with an open weave, in which fish could drain. [↑]
[25] A tall, stiff grass growing near the shore of the sea. Not to be confounded with a variety of kelp with large floats which has the same name. [↑]
[26] The object to be projected was placed on one end of a flexible stick, which was then drawn back and released. [↑]
[27] This word can not be fittingly translated. It is used in speaking to one’s very closest relations. [↑]
[28] That is, the food received from the family of the bridegroom when she married. [↑]
[29] Sg̣ō′łg̣ō-qō′na was one of the many names of Cape Ball, a prominent bluff on the coast between Skidegate and Rose spit, Graham island. He was called the controller of the tides. [↑]
[30] “The-one-who-is-going-to-order-things.” [↑]
[31] Said sarcastically. A man’s nephews, who were also to be his successors, lived on terms of perfect freedom with his wife. [↑]
[32] The men of his adopted father’s clan at House-point. [↑]
[33] The west coast of Moresby island or part of it. [↑]
[34] Qî′ñgi is said to mean “Looking-downward,” because this mountain, which is in the Ninstints country back of Lyell island, hangs precipitously over the sea. [↑]
[35] An exclamation indicating very great wrath and used only by great chiefs. [↑]
[36] One race came from each corner of the house. [↑]
[37] “Sitting-around-snuffing-like-a-dog,” the woman who lives at the head of Telel creek and owns all the fish that go up it. [↑]
[38] “Croaking-raven,” the woman at the head of the creek which flows into Skedans bay. [↑]
[39] From another man I learned that her name was Sg̣ā′na djat ʟg̣ā′gᴀn at nā′nsg̣as, “Supernatural-woman-who-plays-up-and-down-with-her-own-property,” referring to the fish, but in the story on pages [71]–[a]85] it is given as Supernatural-woman-in-whom-is-thunder. [↑]
[40] Meaning by “upon” upon the mountain called Qî′ñgi. This is probably given as the reason why there are so few mainland animals on the Queen Charlotte islands. [↑]
[41] “A hair-seal canoe” (xōt-ʟū) is continually referred to as a canoe used by supernatural beings. [↑]
[42] The “you” is here plural, dalᴀ′ñ, all on the same side being referred to. [↑]
[44] The word used for rainbow here, qwē′stᴀl, seems to mean “cloud cliff” or “sky cliff.” It is not the common word for rainbow, which is taol. [↑]
[45] That is, the carving on it sang. [↑]
[46] Each of these speeches contains a sarcastic reference to the destruction of Qî′ñgi’s people. [↑]
[47] Probably Platichthys stellatus, Pallas; Haida skᴀ′ndal. [↑]
[49] These were feminine genitalia. [↑]
[50] Supernatural beings were unable to bear the odor of urine, the blood of a menstruant woman, or anything associated with these. [↑]
[51] The people of the Raven clan, to which Raven’s sister necessarily belonged, were thought to have better morals than the Eagle people. [↑]
[52] I was unable to get my interpreters to tell me what these words were, but they are contained in stories taken down on this coast in previous years. [↑]
[53] Certain rocks at this place are said to be the bundles of cedar bark which the birds left there. [↑]
[54] This sentence was contributed by an old woman of the Stᴀ′stas family living at Skidegate. She said that the meaning of qᴀlaastī′s had been forgotten, but thought that Raven used it because he was hungry. [↑]
[55] Or Master Canoe-builder, a favorite Haida deity. [↑]
[56] Here Raven is called Wī′gît, a name by which he is sometimes known, especially when he is identified with the being who determines the length of a child’s life when it is born. [↑]
[57] I do not know the English equivalent. They are described as birds like ducks and as having white spots. [↑]
[58] Therefore it is always roily about the places where herring are spawning. [↑]
[59] The beginning of this episode seems to have been omitted. Eagle caught a black cod, which is full of grease, while Raven caught a red cod, which has firmer, drier flesh. [↑]
[60] The old man first started the story at this point, but next morning he said that he had been talking over the proper place to begin with an old woman, and at once recommenced as in this text. Perhaps the real reason was that he disliked to start in immediately with a stranger at the beginning of the “old man’s story,” which is the most venerated part of the whole. [↑]
[61] An exclamation indicating that great crowds turned out. [↑]
[62] The skids upon which canoes were hauled overland. [↑]
[63] The halibut slid him over their backs into the canoe. [↑]
[64] Or “Supernatural fisherman,” the God of Fishing. [↑]
[65] Compare second version of story, given below. [↑]
[66] Meaning carnal knowledge. [↑]
[67] Using insulting and indecent words. [↑]
[68] This is where the division was made by my interpreter. It is not impossible that much that precedes may have been included in the “young man’s” story. [↑]
[69] The proper place to insert this episode is uncertain, but this was thought the best by my interpreter. [↑]
[71] An exclamation meaning “pretty” or “nice.” [↑]
[73] Or the American dipper. [↑]
[74] My informant would have told this as two episodes had it not been for his wife, who objected that it was simply repetition. [↑]
[75] The same as G̣ᴀnō′; see note [3]. [↑]
[76] The figure of a mallard was sometimes carved on shamans’ rattles. [↑]
[77] It was customary to turn the heads of halibut toward him who caught them. [↑]
[78] This word, sîñ, refers particularly to the day-lighted sky. It also means “day.” [↑]
[79] “Raven’s mustache” is a kind of seaweed from which fish eggs were sometimes gathered, but it did not serve as well as hemlock boughs. [↑]
[81] Skᴀñ is an epithet applied to a person who refuses to reply when questioned. [↑]
[82] Said to be a tree similar to an alder. [↑]
[83] a Sqā′djix̣ū or sqā′djigu, a univalve identified by Dr. C. F. Newcombe as Fissuroidea aspera, Esch. b Raven pretends to be a great chief and only communicates with others through Eagle. ↑ [a] [b]
[84] An island on the Tsimshian coast. [↑]
[85] When they stopped laughing he knew that they were asleep. [↑]
[86] Probably related to the chitons. [↑]
[87] Referring to the way in which the Haida strip these animalcules of their outer skin. [↑]
[88] He-who-was-going-to-become-Nᴀñkî′lsʟas. [↑]
[90] Or Qᴀ′lg̣a-djā′adas, the name of Raven’s aunt. [↑]
[91] The old town at Dead Tree point; see the story of [Sacred-one-standing-and-moving], note [3]. [↑]
[92] Probably means “Halibut pool.” [↑]
[93] Old Kloo on the eastern end of Tan-oo island. [↑]
[94] Perhaps Qwē′g̣ao-qons; see the story of [Sounding-gambling-sticks], note [9]. [↑]
[96] See the story of [He-who-was-born-from-his-mother’s-side], note [11]. [↑]
[97] See the story of [Łᴀguadjî′na]. [↑]
[98] The western robin (Merula Migratoria propinqua, Ridgwood). [↑]
[99] The bufflehead; see the story of [Fights between the Tsimshian and Haida and among the northern Haida], note [21]. [↑]
[101] From this it appears that these were flickers. [↑]
[102] This is inconsistent with the previous statement that she accompanied them. [↑]
[103] Told to explain beaver tattooings. [↑]
[104] Ta′ʟ̣at is the word for rainbow trout or charr; ada means “different.” [↑]